XUV500 bookings will re-open from 8 June and the vehicle would be available across the country. Delivery of XUV500 may take over nine months

Mumbai: Homegrown auto major Mahindra & Mahindra (M&M) on Monday said it will re-open bookings for its model XUV500 next month and has increased output of the sports utility vehicle to 4,000 units a month, reports PTI.

The company further said the XUV500 will be made available across India, including the existing 19 cities where it had been launched earlier.

"Now that we have ramped-up our production capacity significantly, we are confident that we will be able to take care of the growing all-India demand for the XUV500," M&M Chief Executive, Automotive Division, Pravin Shah said in a statement.

M&M had been producing about 3,000 units a month of the XUV500 at its Chakan facility earlier and plans to ultimately take it to a monthly output of 5,000 units.

"To cater to the growing demand, production capacity (has been) ramped up to 4,000 vehicles per month," M&M said.

The bookings will re-open from 8 June 2012, the company said, adding nine months production capacity has been sold out for the XUV500.

After launching the vehicle on 29th September last year, the company had temporarily suspended new bookings in October as four months production of over 8,000 units was sold out within just 10 days. The vehicle was available only in five cities of Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, and Pune then.

In the second phase, M&M re-opened bookings for a limited period of 10 days from 25th January this year in 19 cities in India and had received over 25,000 applications but only 7,200 were selected through a lottery.

The XUV500 is currently priced between Rs11.58 lakh and Rs14.11 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi).

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The cabinet secretariat has refused to furnish the records of empanelment of Mr Thomas’ appointment at the Centre under the RTI Act. However, earlier acting on an appeal filed by Delhi-based activist Subhash Agrawal, the CIC had directed the government to disclose of the documents

The central government has decided to challenge the Central Information Commission’s (CIC) order in Delhi High Court, directing it to disclose records, including the file noting, related to the empanelment of former Central Vigilance Commissioner (CVC) PJ Thomas for appointment at the Centre. The decision comes three month after the CIC order.

Hearing an appeal filed by Delhi-based Right to Information (RTI) activist Subhash Agrawal, Central Information Commissioner Satyananda Mishra had, on 29 February 2012, set aside the orders of the central public information officer (CPIO) and appellate authority and directed the cabinet secretariat to disclose the required documents.

“The entire information relates to a certain rule made by the Central government for empanelment of officers for posting at the level of additional secretary and secretary to the Government of India and the subsequent relaxation in that rule. The framing of the rule and its subsequent relaxation cannot be classified as Cabinet papers. Cabinet papers refer to only those papers which are placed before the council of ministers or any committee of ministers constituted by it for considering any particular proposal; framing of rules for empanelment of officers at the level of additional secretary and secretary, we understand, does not require the approval of the council of ministers.”

The cabinet secretariat had refused to furnish the records of empanelment of Mr Thomas’ appointment at the Centre citing it to be Cabinet documents not to be disclosed under the RTI Act.

In a reply to Mr Agrawal’s RTI application, the CPIO did not provide information on some questions such as if there is any provision that required an officer to serve at least for three years in the central government before joining post of joint secretary and above at the Centre, any changes in those norms, etc. The decision was endorsed by the Appellate Authority.

PTI reported that the Centre had a rule that only those IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officers who had served at least three years at the Centre would be considered for appointment to the post of joint secretary and above at the Centre. Accordingly, officials who were facing vigilance cases in their states could not come to the Centre for these positions. The rule was reportedly changed allowing the officials who had been cleared of vigilance inquiry to come and serve at the Centre.

Mr Thomas had joined the Centre as parliamentary affairs secretary in 2009 before his appointment as telecom secretary and subsequently as central vigilance commissioner, which was quashed by the Supreme Court on 3 March 2011. He was selected as CVC in September 2010 by the three-member high-powered committee (HPC) including prime minister Manmohan Singh, home minister P Chidambaram and leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj. Ms Swaraj had put a dissenting note opposing the selection of Mr Thomas. The Supreme Court quashed the appointment of Mr Thomas as CVC, saying the recommendation made by the HPC did not consider charge-sheet relating to a corruption case pending against him during his tenure in Kerala government.

The horrendous accident that killed 27 and left 26 others injured, shows lethargic enforcement of regulations, especially on highways and expressways

Twenty-seven members of a marriage party, including four children, were killed and 26 others injured when a speeding tempo rammed in two stationary buses at Khalapur on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.

The incident took place in the wee hours around 1am when the tyres of one of the mini-buses carrying a marriage party got punctured on the expressway and was parked on the roadside while another bus was stationed just behind the vehicle, helping it out with the repairs, reports PTI.

The mishap occurred when a speeding tempo rammed into the second mini bus from the rear, crushing people seated on the road between both the vehicles, police said.

According to Chandmal Parmar, an activist who is fighting hard to prevent road accidents, such horrendous mishaps could have averted, if only they had used the retro-reflector strips on all sides of the bus. “The retro-reflector strips, white on the front side of the vehicle, yellow on both the sides, and red on the backside of the vehicle, especially on commercial vehicles, are more useful in preventing accidents. In fact, the surface transport and highways ministry issued a circular in 2008, based on my application. However, the local authorities do not show any concern. The ministry, after my second approach, again issued similar notification in 2011, but there are hardly 10% to 15% vehicles, which are following the regulations or using the retro-reflector strips,” he said.

Coming back to the accident, according to police, the deceased including women and children were returning to Pune after attending a wedding at suburban Ghatkopar in Mumbai.

The injured have been admitted to MGM hospital at Panvel and Pune’s Sassoon hospital, where three victims were pronounced dead on arrival, police said.

The deceased have not been identified yet. The tempo driver has been detained at Khalapur in Raigad district, they added.

The victims, who were brought to the Sassoon hospital in Pune and declared dead on arrival, were identified as Pooja Shinde (12), Om Sonavane (6) and Mangla Gaikwad (42).

According to police, the newly-married couple was safe as they were travelling separately.

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COMMENTS

Sanjay

5 years ago

What puzzles me is the speedbreakers before Toll Plaza. Why there is no mention of them? I recall they exist. But look to me that the Tempo hit it & hence was flying when it hit the parked Tempo..

MSRTC should look at more sets of speedbreakers.. Also Toll guys shouldn't allow vehicles to be parked as is mentioned here - at Toll gate. They should be forced to move to side of roads where such parking is permitted.

malq

5 years ago

It appears to be very difficult to understand how this happened. From the many reports and photos available, it looks like two long-body/elongated Tempo Traveller type passenger vans were rammed from behind by an LCV. This apparently happened on the approaches to the Khalapur toll plaza, which itself is after a long and fast left-hander of a turn - and which also has some confusing exits for some factories as well as the food court.

Increasingly in other parts of the country, commercial vehicles are being made to install high running lights, day-glo luminous strips and paint the rear in a diagonal contrasting colour pattern (yellow/black, for example). Aesthetically it may not look good, to some, but it serves the purpose.

It is also about time that compulsory alcohol detection was imposed on vehicles at the toll plazas. Especially at night.